Populate an associative array from a string with the same symbol used as a delimiter and in values

Question

How can I convert string to an array?

Input:

$string = "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids&Baby";

Desired output:

array{
    [12] => 'Shoes',
    [28] => 'Jewelry',
    [30] => 'Watch',
    [96] => 'Beauty',
    [98] => 'Kids&Baby'
}

Can anyone suggest how I can concisely convert it using a PHP function like preg_match(), preg_match_all(), etc.?

Hibbs

Have you tried something? – Burrow

php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php – Ferocious

@Burrow Thanks But yet I have no more Idea how can I convert it. – Hibbs

Explode give me like single array. like Array ( [0] => 12 [1] => Shoes [2] => 28 [3] => Jewelry [4] => 30 [5] => Watch [6] => 96 [7] => Beauty [8] => 98 [9] => Kids [10] => Baby ) – Hibbs

This will be very hard as the string does not follow any pattern. May be you can identify integer & string to split – Burrow

This will be very hard as the string does not follow any pattern. May be you can identify integer & string to split – Burrow

Since the string contains "Kids&Baby", I am not sure if any of the answer so far will give exact results – Burrow

@Burrow for "Kids&Baby" we can use str_replace for it Like $string = "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids&Baby"; $string = str_replace('Kids&Baby','Kids_Baby',$string); // Output will be "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids_Baby" So "Kids&Baby" will be not meter. – Hibbs

@RP, try my solution with preg_match_all. I'm trying to figure out how to remove the last & sign, it's been a long time regexp :) – Zenithal

@RP, just posted an answer with few lines of code as you expected. – Burrow

@Burrow Thanks again. – Hibbs

Thanks to all to give me answer and best reply. – Hibbs

Answer 1

I know you asked for regex, but i'm the one who likes to do other way if it's simple to do.

$string = "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids&Baby&Try";
$array = explode('&', $string);
$total = count($array);
for ($i = 0; $i < $total; $i++) {
  if (is_numeric($array[$i])) {
   $result[$array[$i]] = '';
   $lastIndex = $array[$i];
  } else {
    if ($result[$lastIndex] == ''){
       $result[$lastIndex] .= $array[$i];
    } else {
        $result[$lastIndex] .= '&' . $array[$i];
    }
  }
}
var_dump($result);

Piling

My first thought, but wouldn't work because of the "Kids&Baby". – Sox

Great its Done. Can we optimize it? – Hibbs

Yeah, im doing that, wait plz – Piling

can you explain how you fixed Kids&Baby? :D – Gallia

@skunkhaze The previous code was complicated I simplified that, review plz. I'm at work, sry if I couldn't do best – Piling

@CarlosAlexandre I think the previous edit was way cleaner. But It's up to you how to leave it. – Sox

@Sox With that way we can rely on the code all of parsing between indexes and content and only spending one more var, no much costs. The previous code wasn't optimized as R P stated above. If the string take more than 3 or 4 strings, it would be a problem. I open to reviews too, thanks – Piling

Answer 2

Try next one:

$list = array();

// $tmp = explode('&', $string); - not suitable coz of 'Value&Value' existence 
preg_match_all('/\d+|[a-z&]+/i', $string, $tmp);
foreach ($tmp[0] as $i => $value) {
    // 0, 2, ... elements are the keys
    if ($i%2 === 0) {
        $key = $value;
    // 1, 3 ... values
    } else {
        $list[$key] = trim($value, '&');
    }
}

Or even shorter version:

preg_match_all('/(\d+)\&([a-z&]+[^\&0-9])/i', $string, $tmp);
$list = array_combine($tmp[1], $tmp[2]);

Result:

var_dump($list);

array(5) {
  [12] => string(5) "Shoes"
  [28] => string(7) "Jewelry"
  [30] => string(5) "Watch"
  [96] => string(6) "Beauty"
  [98] => string(9) "Kids&Baby"
}

Obtect

Thank for reply and try. code give me Warning Like - Warning: trim() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in D:\xampp\htdocs\test\index.php on line 11 - Warning: Illegal offset type in D:\xampp\htdocs\test\index.php on line 11 – Hibbs

@RP, it was true before last edit (foreach ($tmp -> foreach ($tmp[0] ) – Obtect

Even shorter would be: preg_match_all('/(\d+)\&([a-z&]+[^\&0-9])/i', $string, $tmp); $list = array_combine($tmp[1], $tmp[2]); – Obtect

Answer 3

Please try PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE with preg_split to get the items which was split ,

$string = "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids&Baby";

$array = preg_split("/(\d+)/", $string, -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY | PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
foreach($array AS $key => $val) {
   if($key%2) continue;
   $result[$val] = trim($array[$key+1], '&');
}

Burrow

Answer 4

I removed my previous answer, since I suggested parse_str, but I didn't read the question correctly.

One solution could be, using preg_match_all. The only problem is, I can't filter out the last & at the end of each value. Trying to figure out how regexp non-matching works again :)

NOTE! This isn't going to work if your values contain numbers!

php > preg_match_all('/(?P<key>[0-9]+)&(?P<values>[^0-9]+)/i', $string, $matches);
php > var_dump($matches);
array(5) {
  [0]=>
  array(5) {
    [0]=>
    string(9) "12&Shoes&"
    [1]=>
    string(11) "28&Jewelry&"
    [2]=>
    string(9) "30&Watch&"
    [3]=>
    string(10) "96&Beauty&"
    [4]=>
    string(12) "98&Kids&Baby"
  }
  ["key"]=>
  array(5) {
    [0]=>
    string(2) "12"
    [1]=>
    string(2) "28"
    [2]=>
    string(2) "30"
    [3]=>
    string(2) "96"
    [4]=>
    string(2) "98"
  }
  [1]=>
  array(5) {
    [0]=>
    string(2) "12"
    [1]=>
    string(2) "28"
    [2]=>
    string(2) "30"
    [3]=>
    string(2) "96"
    [4]=>
    string(2) "98"
  }
  ["values"]=>
  array(5) {
    [0]=>
    string(6) "Shoes&"
    [1]=>
    string(8) "Jewelry&"
    [2]=>
    string(6) "Watch&"
    [3]=>
    string(7) "Beauty&"
    [4]=>
    string(9) "Kids&Baby"
  }
  [2]=>
  array(5) {
    [0]=>
    string(6) "Shoes&"
    [1]=>
    string(8) "Jewelry&"
    [2]=>
    string(6) "Watch&"
    [3]=>
    string(7) "Beauty&"
    [4]=>
    string(9) "Kids&Baby"
  }
}

Zenithal

My apologies, I scanned your string to fast and didn't notice it isn't a valid parameter=value combination, like you use in URL's. So my solution isn't going to work. It would have worked if you strings looks like: $string = "12=Shoes&28=Jewelry&30=Watch&96=Beauty&98=Kids&Baby"; – Zenithal

Answer 5

Here is my improvement to @FieryCat's snippets.

To accommodate Kids&Baby, just make it optional for a "value" component to contain a & if it is immediately followed by letters.

Code: (Demo)

$string = "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids&Baby";

var_export(
    preg_match_all(
        '/(\d+)&([a-z]+(?:&[a-z]+)?)/i',
        $string,
        $m
    )
    ? array_combine($m[1], $m[2])
    : []
);

Output:

array (
  12 => 'Shoes',
  28 => 'Jewelry',
  30 => 'Watch',
  96 => 'Beauty',
  98 => 'Kids&Baby',
)

Catfall

Answer 6

Try this:

function trim_custom($item){
  return trim($item,'&');
}

$string = "12&Shoes&28&Jewelry&30&Watch&96&Beauty&98&Kids&Baby";
$values = array_filter( explode(",",preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z-&]+/", ",", $string)) );
$values = array_map('trim_custom',$values);
$keys = array_filter ( explode(",",preg_replace("/[^0-9]+/", ",", $string)) );

$list = array_combine($keys,$values);

Output:

print_r($list);

Array
(
    [12] => Shoes
    [28] => Jewelry
    [30] => Watch
    [96] => Beauty
    [98] => Kids&Baby
)

Say

Kids&Baby is one value though – Gallia

@Ali Hesari thanks. but in last "Kids&Bab" will be a problem. – Hibbs

@RP I've fixed function – Say